Crowds bloom at Alexandra's Blossom Festival

Leah Morait waves from the Rotary Club of Alexandra's float. Photo / Gerard O'Brien

There was a bumper crowd, perfect weather, lots of happy faces and only a few arrests at this year's Blossom Festival in Alexandra.

Event manager Martin McPherson was elated. "To say I'm pleased would be a massive understatement."

He estimated about 15,000 people lined the streets to watch the festival parade on Saturday, and about 9000 of them came into Pioneer Park afterwards to enjoy the afternoon entertainment.

"The crowd looked the biggest it's been for several years and all the pieces of the jigsaw seemed to come into place," he said.

Antisocial behaviour during the Blossom Festival weekend continued to drop, with the number of arrests this year the lowest for 16 years.

Central Otago police area supervisor Senior Sergeant Ian Kerrisk was pleased with a "relatively trouble-free weekend".

Up until 3pm yesterday, 22 people had been arrested, compared with 24 last year and 78 in 2010. Those arrested were aged between 17 and 43 and only three were from Central Otago, he said.

They were arrested for offences "at the lower end of the scale", mostly offensive or disorderly behaviour, minor assaults or breaching the liquor ban. The majority received pre-charge warnings.

Police numbers in Central Otago were boosted by 30 for the weekend, Mr Kerrisk said.

The biggest two days of the festival also enjoyed calm, fine weather, with the temperature hitting 20C both afternoons.

Festival chairwoman Clair Higginson said she "couldn't have hoped for better".

The Alexandra Volunteer Fire Brigade's float entry - a "life-sized" replica of a fire engine - was a crowd pleaser and won the people's choice award, voted by the public.

More than 25,000 crepe paper blossoms were used to make the float, which took about a month to complete.